Peter Foster is the Telegraph's US Editor based in Washington DC. He moved to America in January 2012 after three years based in Beijing, where he covered the rise of China. Before that, he was based in New Delhi as South Asia correspondent. He has reported for The Telegraph for more than a decade, covering two Olympic Games, 9/11 in New York, the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami, the post-conflict phases in Afghanistan and Iraq and the 2011 Fukushima disaster in Japan.

China has no time for dithering old Europe

Europe is China’s largest trading partner, but as European diplomats constantly complain, the EU’s political clout with China is utterly puny when compared with its collective trading status – and not just compared to America but increasingly to countries like Venezuela, Russia and Brazil.

Senior Chinese officials go through diplomatic motions, but in private they make little secret about how tiresome they find Europe’s constant in-fighting and bickering. A European diplomat tells how only the other day, one Chinese government minister was talking about the potential of a high-speed rail project connecting Asia across Europe, but then quickly bemoaned the tedium of dealing with “all those little countries”.

Those who argue for a stronger, more unified Europe when it comes to dealing with China do so because they know at first hand the contempt with which China now often views Europe. It drips audibly from Chinese leaders’ private pronouncements, and even more so since Europe found itself in a sovereign debt crisis, with China buying up Eurobonds to shore up the finances of once-great powers.

Chinese leaders talk, wearily, about being “patient” with Europe, saying they “understand” why we seemingly can’t agree on anything, before quickly mentioning those three trillion dollars-worth in foreign exchange reserves that can keep heads above water in the Med.

Baroness Ashton’s new EU foreign service is meant to try and help Europe punch its political weight, but the Chinese don’t sound like they have much confidence it will be able to do the job.

At China’s ministry of foreign affairs, heads shake wearily (if disingenuously) about the capacity of the EU’s former Imperial Powers to give lectures on human rights, rule of law, environment and trade protectionism. The atmosphere is so much more conducive to trade and partnership, say Chinese officials, when they meet with their other trading partners in Africa and Latin America who come to do business not give lectures.

There are those in Europe who believe, as an EU diplomat said to me last week, that China "needs us more than we need them" – and are determined that Europe should deal with China accordingly. They should be aware that that is definitely not how China sees the relationship.